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The Ref

Ted Demme(1994)

92min

15 Certificate

Sunday 12:20am - 2:10amRTÉ One

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Review

Our Score

by Alan Jones

Those unfamiliar with stand-up comedian Denis Leary may have problems tuning in to his hard-smoking, aggressively acerbic persona. Yet, in this bitingly dark comedy from director Ted Demme, his considerable comic talents are brilliantly shoehorned into a highly amusing attack on contemporary "relationship management", which also takes effective side-swipes at the American class system. Leary plays a small-time thief holding a dysfunctional family hostage at Christmas, who ends up getting caught in the middle of their multiple feuds and neuroses. Judy Davis and Kevin Spacey's "couple from hell" give Leary solid support.

Summary

American comedian Denis Leary takes his first big-screen starring role in this black comedy about a desperate burglar making his getaway from the police on Christmas Eve, who holds a husband and wife hostage in their home at gunpoint. Unfortunately for him, the couple's constant bickering soon makes the siege more of an ordeal for him than them. Riotous domestic comedy, also starring Oscar winner Kevin Spacey and Judy Davis. Directed by Ted Demme.